As part of our careers in publishing series, we spoke to Jadene Squires about her role as Editorial Assistant for Bloomsbury Children's Books to find out what skills she uses on a day-to-day basis.
1. Hi Jadene, can you tell us how you came to be in your current role?
Hello! I started my career in children’s publishing through an absolutely brilliant apprenticeship scheme organised by LDN apprenticeships. Throughout the course, I was able to spread myself across the entire children’s editorial department, gaining heaps of practical experience but also getting to learn about different departments and the wider industry too. When a permanent role opened up in my team, I felt incredibly confident applying thanks to the all skills and knowledge I’d gained over the previous months. For anyone struggling to enter the industry due to not having relevant experience, if you’re able to take part in the apprenticeship scheme then I absolutely recommend it – and no, you’re never too old to be an apprentice!
2. Could you take us through the sort of responsibilities that you manage in your role?
The main thing I love about my job is how different every day is. As an editorial assistant, my role is split into both administrative and editorial remits. Administrative tasks are varied but can include things like minuting meetings, maintaining metadata and managing book reprints. Editorial responsibilities are equally varied and involve things like proofreading texts, feeding back on illustrations, writing back cover or catalogue copy and briefing book covers. My favourite part of the role however will always be reading submissions and discussing them with my team; nothing is as exciting as reading a manuscript for the first time and thinking ‘this is amazing.’
3. What is the first skill you need for your role? You can expand your answers here, by perhaps giving some examples of situations where this skill has proven invaluable.
I’d say the most important skill you need is the ability to stay ORGANISED. As well as having my own titles and regular responsibilities to keep on top of, as an editorial assistant, I also support my team so am given tasks to do by multiple people on a daily basis. Juggling several deadlines and tasks of varying urgency and importance can be tricky if you’re not organised, so I cannot stress enough the importance of a good to-do list and a filing system.
4. What is the second skill you need?
The second skill is (and you may have guessed it...) an eye for detail. This means paying attention to both the finer details, such as an errant punctuation mark. and the bigger picture, such as text flowing too closely to an illustration. I use this skill every day, for example when proofreading copy, checking that an ebook has been converted properly from a print file and, for illustrated books, ensuring that the ilustrations are appropriate and match the text. The main purpose of an editor is to make the reading process as easy and enjoyable as possible, so being able to weed out anything that might prevent that is really important. I’ve left three little errors in this paragraph – if you spot them all, perhaps you too could be an editor!
5. Finally, what is the third skill you need?
The third skill you need as an editorial assistant is the ability to communicate. Publishing is a highly collaborative industry, and every day I engage with people from my team, other departments and externally. As well as adapting to the people I’m interacting with, I also need to think about the purpose of my communication – Am I sending minutes to a large group of publishing professionals from different departments? Am I pitching a book I’m really excited about to my team? Am I emailing a debut author with no publishing experience whatsoever? Am I writing customer or consumer-facing copy with the aim of garnering interest in a title? Being able to communicate clearly, passionately and flexibly will be key in helping you develop within this industry.
6. What advice do you have for publishing hopefuls looking to develop these skills?
Luckily a lot of the skills needed to be an editorial assistant are super transferrable, so most people already have them (hooray!). If you don’t have experience working in the book industry, I’d suggest thinking about ways you can show you’ll be able to apply these core skills to publishing. Another important thing to remember is that while we all love books, publishing is also a business, so highlighting you understand this and also having an awareness of the market you’re interested in (i.e. the target audience, recent changes and current trends) will help your job applications stand out.
Jadene was born and raised in London and seemingly can’t get away from it (despite her best efforts). She’s worked in several industries, although publishing is her favourite, and loves reading, pizza and forms of exercise where you don’t realise you’re actually exercising. She is a strong believer that books should be accessible to everyone, and that you’re never too old to try something new. If you have any follow-up questions you’d like to ask about the industry, you can send her a message on LinkedIn.
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